Texas Anti-Abortion Law Struck Down by Supreme Court, 5-3
Fantastic news from the Supreme Court this morning, as one of America’s most repressive right wing attempts to outlaw abortion by fiat has been struck down.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday struck down one of the nation’s toughest restrictions on abortion, a Texas law that women’s groups said would have forced more than three-quarters of the state’s clinics to shut down.
The decision was 5-3.
Passed in 2013, the law said clinics providing abortion services must meet the same building standards as ambulatory surgical centers. And it required doctors performing abortions to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals.
Since the law was passed, the number of clinics providing abortion services in Texas dropped to 19 from 42. Opponents said that number would fall to ten if the Supreme Court upheld the law.
The Center for Reproductive Rights called the law “an absolute sham,” arguing that abortion patients rarely require hospitalization and that many patients simply take two pills.
[Justice Stephen G.] Breyer was joined in the majority by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Elena Kagan and Anthony M. Kennedy and Sonia Sotomayor. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Clarence Thomas dissented.
Here’s the decision:
Former Democratic Texas state senator Wendy Davis is overjoyed at this decision, and feels “vindicated” at last:
THE FIX: Do you feel vindicated by this decision?
DAVIS: I feel vindicated on behalf of the women who will once again access safe and legal abortion care in our state. I feel vindicated on behalf of them and the fact that their health will no longer be jeopardized as a consequence of this particular law.
THE FIX: I talked to an abortion rights advocate who said this is the most momentous Supreme Court decision on abortion in a generation. What are your thoughts?
DAVIS: It’s certainly the most monumental decision that we’ve had since Roe v. Wade. And it not only reaffirms the constitutional protections that were echoed or articulated in Roe v. Wade; it solidifies them, it strengthens them, and it certainly ends any question of whether this Supreme Court will continue to uphold the principles that are embodied in them.